


The Challenge

by mag_nifique



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dragons (Harry Potter), Gen, Minor Canonical Character(s), One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2014-07-16
Packaged: 2018-02-09 03:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1967802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mag_nifique/pseuds/mag_nifique
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Susan Bones, due to some extraordinarily bad luck and a dying wish, finds herself in an arena with a dragon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Challenge

**Author's Note:**

> This little one-shot was originally written for a House Cup challenge over at HPFF a few years back. It is also serves as the prequel to my story 'Training the Heart', a Susan x Charlie fic.

Susan Bones twirled her wand and jumped a little when sparks shot out. She was nervous, so nervous. And she could hardly believe this was happening. When she’d signed up for dragon training with Charlie Weasley she’d never imagined actually facing one. It was Gryffindor where the brave of heart dwell, not Hufflepuff!

To distract herself, she focused on her wand. Susan still remembered the day Mr. Ollivander had presented it to her in his shop; it seemed like a lifetime ago.

_“Ash, twelve inches, with a dragon heartstring core, springy and good for transfiguration. I think it will suit your temperament just fine, Miss Bones.”_

Charlie poked his head in through the flap of the tent and interrupted her thoughts. He grinned at her and Susan tried not to let her shaking be noticeable. She could do this, she had to. It had been her aunt’s dying wish that she make something of herself, do something worthwhile and that would help the wizarding world. Controlling the ever-growing dangerous dragon population had seemed like a good place to start.

“Ready, Bones?” he said with a wink and she gulped.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she muttered and he grinned.

“Right, that’s the spirit. Now, what’s the first thing you’ve got to do?”

She wracked her brain for a response. “Uhm, identify the species?” she fumbled and he nodded.

“I’ll give you a hint, it’s one of four species most commonly found in Europe.” She nodded and he ducked out.

So that meant it had to be a Common Welsh Green, Hungarian Horntail, Hebridean Black, or Norwegian Ridgeback.

She could only hope it wouldn’t be a Horntail. She remembered when Harry Potter had faced off against one their fourth year, it was terrifying. He’d only been saved by accio-ing his broom. And she didn't have a broom (not that she was very good at riding one anyway).

Susan took a steadying breath and wished she could just avada kedavra the beast. She supposed Charlie wouldn’t look too fondly on that, so she would have to resort to more complicated endeavors and combinations of spells.

She took another deep breath and stepped forward, pushing the tent’s opening aside as she stepped into the sunlight. Susan squinted and waited for her eyes to adjust. The terrain in the training arena was actually quite similar to the one used in the Triwizard Tournament, hilly and rocky. For a moment she allowed herself to be annoyed – Charlie just couldn’t let anything be easy, could he?

And then she saw it.

It was actually quite easy to identify, as it was coal black from nose to tail and it looked meaner than a Slytherin on any given day of the week.

The Hebridean Black roared, lifted its head toward the sky and sent flames licking over fifty feet in the area. Susan opted to whimper, resisting the urge to scream, curl up in a ball, and prepare to die. Thinking quickly, she spied a shelter formed by an overhanging rock and made a beeline for it. She only just made it, and as she slid into safety, the area where she’d inhabited not fifteen seconds before was incinerated.

She clutched her wand and tried to think, to focus on anything she’d learned in the past eight years. Maybe she could transfigure it? Perhaps into something easier to handle, such as a blast-ended skrewt? No, dragons’ hides made that almost impossible.

But… she thought of what Cedric had done. She was a Hufflepuff, and if she wasn’t especially brave, she was hard working, and while this would take some effort, and a little bit of luck, it might just work. After all, she only had to get out of the arena unharmed. No one said anything about actually  _incapacitating_ the dragon.

Susan listened for the dragon and peeked out of her hiding spot. It was a dozen yards away or so, sniffing the air and looking, in general, bad-tempered. She crawled out of her hiding spot, and whispering a spell, she transfigured a rock near it into a blast-ended screwt. Well, if she couldn’t transfigure the dragon, she’d take a page out of good ol’ Cedric’s book and transfigure the rock beside it.

The screwt did not look happy to be there, and immediately began to blast its way toward the dragon, who, it seemed, the screwt blamed for its new existence. At first the dragon didn’t notice the animal, and Susan held her breath, praying it would and she would have enough time to escape, though as the seconds passed that seemed less and less likely. And then the screwt hit the dragon directly in one of its toes and the dragon roared and focused all of its attention on the little menace.

That was all that Susan needed and she was off running, Merlin only knew how much time she would have before the dragon killed the skrewt, or incapacitated it enough so that it wasn’t a nuisance anymore. She had the entrance in her sights when she heard the roar. She knew she shouldn’t look over her shoulder, but she did anyway only to see the dragon bearing down on her, open maw outstretched and ready to snap her up. She sent a stunning spell over her shoulder and pushed herself to run even faster. The dragon roared again, and just as she ran out she felt the flames licking at her heels.

The door clanged shut behind her and the momentum kept her going until Charlie stopped her. They went down in a tangle of body parts, and he roared with laughter as she panted.

“You know Bones, you’ve got promise. We’ll turn you into a dragon keeper yet.” He chuckled and Susan couldn’t do anything but continue to pant for a moment.

When she’d got back her breath, she spoke. “But first you’re going to need to get me a sleeping drought because I’m going to have nightmares now thanks to you!” She shoved him lightly as she stood up and he lay on the ground and roared with laughter.

Susan pursed her lips. It wasn’t that funny.


End file.
